Coming off the thrilling finish in Raleigh, we're back at it just two days from now. CSU got hammered at NC State on Friday by 36 points but they've had a few days to lick their wounds and begin prepping for us. They're a good team and they'll be fresher. With us coming off the emotional roller coaster last night, we better come to play because this has trap game written all over it. Relying on our veteran leadership to make sure we show up and take care of business. Reminder, tip is at 7:00 PM. TV is on the SoCon Digital Network with our radio guys on the call and if you're in the area, tickets are only $1 (!) when you buy online. Can't beat that value so show up and be loud since the students are on break and give CSU a proper BenJo experience...

I missed the Coaches show- out going door to door to see if folks watched the game yesterday afternoon... I will guess that MY said a lot of the coachy things that are said when one has a tough time hiding a smile! If there was anything newsworthy, someone please post. In the meantime, folks here in NC feel somewhat like I do, in that this NC St team is probably the best Mark Gottfried has coached at State. They came into the game #26 in the RPI. My guess is that they will finish in the top 25 before the year is out. Once we get into league play our RPI will drop, regardless of wins. There's just not many SoCon teams that have-or will have- a very high rating. I'm sure MY won't let these guys get ahead of themselves. We need to take care of business against CSU and then head up to WVa to play the Huggie Bear. Our stage is getting bigger, and if our guys keep their heads they can show they belong there.

Coming off a huge win at NC State and with games at West Virginia and Duke to follow, this could be a trap gme. CSU has a win over Ole Miss on its resume, so they are certainly capable of playing very good basketball and capable of beating us. So we need to be ready. I have no doubt that we will be. Hopefully the $1 ticket promotion will help to bring us a huge crowd to keep the guys pumped up!

boulder3m wrote:I missed the Coaches show- out going door to door to see if folks watched the game yesterday afternoon... I will guess that MY said a lot of the coachy things that are said when one has a tough time hiding a smile! If there was anything newsworthy, someone please post. In the meantime, folks here in NC feel somewhat like I do, in that this NC St team is probably the best Mark Gottfried has coached at State. They came into the game #26 in the RPI. My guess is that they will finish in the top 25 before the year is out. Once we get into league play our RPI will drop, regardless of wins. There's just not many SoCon teams that have-or will have- a very high rating. I'm sure MY won't let these guys get ahead of themselves. We need to take care of business against CSU and then head up to WVa to play the Huggie Bear. Our stage is getting bigger, and if our guys keep their heads they can show they belong there.

MY led off the show with something like "What a great win against Florida National" Otherwise, he was a very happy coach with all sorts of praise for his players. And he criticized himself for not putting the players in the right position on the (almost) game winner by Lacey. Spencer Collins was the player interview but apparently Buffalo Wild Wings fed the entire team supper. MY said they gave us a deal, which sounds like free to me. But maybe there are some NCAA regulations involved.

Thanks for the update and recap. Somehow I wish the coaches shows could be captured electronically and available online. In this busy season there are lots of things keeping us away from the radio. I hope our guys are focused and ready tomorrow night.

boulder3m wrote:I missed the Coaches show- out going door to door to see if folks watched the game yesterday afternoon... I will guess that MY said a lot of the coachy things that are said when one has a tough time hiding a smile! If there was anything newsworthy, someone please post. In the meantime, folks here in NC feel somewhat like I do, in that this NC St team is probably the best Mark Gottfried has coached at State. They came into the game #26 in the RPI. My guess is that they will finish in the top 25 before the year is out. Once we get into league play our RPI will drop, regardless of wins. There's just not many SoCon teams that have-or will have- a very high rating. I'm sure MY won't let these guys get ahead of themselves. We need to take care of business against CSU and then head up to WVa to play the Huggie Bear. Our stage is getting bigger, and if our guys keep their heads they can show they belong there.

MY led off the show with something like "What a great win against Florida National" Otherwise, he was a very happy coach with all sorts of praise for his players. And he criticized himself for not putting the players in the right position on the (almost) game winner by Lacey. Spencer Collins was the player interview but apparently Buffalo Wild Wings fed the entire team supper. MY said they gave us a deal, which sounds like free to me. But maybe there are some NCAA regulations involved.

I think if it's a team thing it's no big deal, either way it wouldn't be a huge deal.

I just got my $1 ticket online. I actually paid $2 as there was a $1 convience charge, but that's still a great deal! You can get your tickets by going to WoffordTerriers.com and hitting events and then hitting tickets under the Charleston Southern game. You have to enter the code SOCIAL (all caps) to get the dollar promo. Here's hoping for a huge crowd tomorrow night!

I saw the crawl on ESPN about the BPI rating and the top 5 teams. It got my curiosity up, so I clicked on the site and took a look. This is supposed to figure in the site, the pace of play, the players who were hurt or didn't play and other items that would make it a better poll. I will attach it at the end of this post. We are far down the list from Harvard, Davidson, Butler and most of the other mid major powers, but a rating of 82 seems about right. That guys is a GREAT rating for our program. It's very hard for our guys to creep up that list if we don't play and beat some of the higher ranked teams; and until we prove that we belong on the court with them we won't get to play them on a neutral court (in a tournament) or at home. So, when we choose to schedule them, we are forced to play them on their home floors. This is a huge step forward, and our team needs to keep it up to stay in the upper echelon of the list.

I think now, especially once we open the new arena, that we will get other mid-mjors to schedule home and homes with us. And if they think they are too uppity and too good to play us home and home, then I would say screw them- we'll schedule someone else. DON'T agree to just away games with other mid majors...we ar getting to the point that we are just as good as they are. And we do it while playing scholarship football too.

I think we're definitely improving with how we're scheduling mid-majors. The home-and-home with Iona and William & Mary provide great experience for our team as well as match us up with quality opponents. While I'm glad our guys will get the experience of playing in Cameron Indoor, I almost prefer the scheduling of teams like NC State where the games should be really competitive versus the expected blowout (here's to hoping we shock the world in a couple weeks!). If we're able to consistently schedule some mid- to bottom-tier ACC & SEC teams and start to routinely beat them, imagine what it would do for our credibility as a basketball power. I think our improved facilities will help in recruiting both great players and great teams to Spartanburg. Hopefully we're able to reach a critical mass where our program can sustain the kind of success we've been having and we can become the new Davidson of the SoCon and no longer rebuild, just reload!

I watched a very brief part of the UNCG vs. UNC game last night.The primary announcer said "They [UNCG] don't have to beat UNC they just have to win the SoCon" to go to the playoffs.The color announcer then added, "But they'll have to go through Wofford." and then spoke about our program for a minute or two.